Melvin postgame interview

D-backs manager proud of his team for fighting until last out

By / MLB.com

Can you just sum up how far you came this season? I'm sure there's disappointment, but just looking at where you are tonight?

BOB MELVIN: Once the sting of this subsides, I'll be able to reflect that we did have a great year, starting in Spring Training, getting to this point, obviously, you know, if you asked us at the beginning of Spring Training if we would end up here, you'd have to take it. But obviously the farther you go along in the season, the more confidence you gain, the more wins you accumulate. You know, it hurts.

I don't think after that fourth inning they gave you a chance to come back, but your team showed character and the fight, and can you talk about the fight and character and what that tells us about you?

BOB MELVIN: That's what I was saying, whether it's a game or inning, whether it's running balls out or putting pressure on the other team, fighting all the way to the end, that's what we've been about all year long. And gave ourselves a chance there with the tying run at the plate in the last inning.

Did you talk to the team afterwards and, if so, what did you say?

BOB MELVIN: Real quick, I told them this is the start of something. I'm proud of every one of them. We fought -- just what I'm saying right now: We fought again to the end, which we expect every night.

And you know hold your heads high, because we had a hell of a year.

What do you hope your team learned about itself from both the season and the postseason?

BOB MELVIN: I don't know so much about learn about yourself, it's just the confidence you gain, the experience you get from playing in postseason, down the stretch, all the big games that we played in, you know, guys are now battle tested at a very young age.

So I think more than learning something about yourself, you gain the experience and in future years to come that we've been here, done that, and it's all about taking to it the next level.

Two plays tonight, Conor Jackson, the error, and Stephen Drew, 3-0 swing and away, decision on that --

BOB MELVIN: Stephen, that's an easy one. He's my only left-handed bat there in the inning. It's going to be a fastball. He has a chance to tie the game. If that's not the tying run, then I obviously don't let him swing, but right there you know you're going to get a fastball, you know you're going to get a pitch to drive. Just came off it a hair and popped it up, put a good swing on it.

Obviously prolonged the inning. We're right out of the inning, right there, if that doesn't happen, the ball comes up on him just a little bit, tries to stay in front of it and obviously got him further along in the inning and took advantage of it.

Coming into the series the Rockies starting pitching wasn't the big story line. What made them so effective all throughout the series?

BOB MELVIN: Their pitching got better as the series went along. The younger guys came up big for them, the bullpen was four to five as the season went along. Herges and Affeldt, they picked up during the season, they got deeper with the emergence of Corpas, and now they're playing a shorter game where in the past they weren't able to do that.

Talk about Micah's performance. Do you think the play in the infield rattled him a bit?

BOB MELVIN: No, the only ball that hit hard off of him was the Matsui bat. Even the Smith bat where they scored two runs, he makes every pitch. Makes a pitch in on them, breaks the bat and falls on the line, two runs scored. He made his pitches all inning, and in my opinion earned the right to face Holliday right there.

Courtesy of FastScripts by ASAP Sports. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.